Business Blog Boost

In June 2008 I decided that in order to take the Europe a la Carte blog to the next level, it would need to become a multi author blog with more variety and volume of content than I could personally write. It was hard to let go off my baby and lose control of the content and the personality of the blog that I’d built up over 20 months. I’d looked at several multi author travel blogs and to be quite honest some of were seriously lacking in coherence.

It was crucial that the relationship between me and the blogging team would be mutually beneficial. I knew that from my own perspective writing for Wandalust, which I do to increase my personal exposure as well as that of Europe a la Carte and to gain experience writing about travel outside Europe. not primarily for the $140 a month. As Europe a la Carte is an established travel blog with a Google Page Rank of 4, it is an ideal showcase for travel bloggers/writers.

I advertised on Perfomancing.com for bloggers and was overwhelmed by the response. I initially wanted to recruit 5 bloggers, so each could write one post a week. I did spend a bit of time in the recruitment process to find bloggers whose style would fit with Europe a la Carte. I don’t mean that they had to write in a uniform manner but that there would still be coherence in the blog. I don’t consider myself a travel writer as such and was well aware that some of the new content could be of a superior standard to my own writing.

I thought that I’d better moderate posts from the new bloggers before they were uploaded, so gave the bloggers contributor status on the blog, however that meant that they couldn’t upload their photos so after a week, I changed this to author status. where the bloggers can publish their own posts.

There were one or two teething problems but it all seems to be going really well now with a big increase in page views.   Each of the 5 bloggers has their own style but their posts still fit well within the remit of “authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget”, whether that be reviews of travel sites, information about travel deals, events or destinations. Just as well I was prepared to be outshone as a writer, as it is happening but I’m all too aware of my own limitations.

In conclusion if you’re thinking of changing your blog to multi author:

1 Your blog will need to have a good reputation and established in its field to attract good writers who are looking for exposure.

2 Recruit carefully to find bloggers who’ll be a good fit for your blog and give them ground rules without being dictatorial. Be approachable and willing to take on board bloggers concerns and/or suggestions. Remember this relationship has to be win/win for you and the blogger.

3 You have to be prepared to let go and trust your blogging team and feel secure enough to recognise and praise good writing from your team.

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Earlier this week I evaluated the marketing strategy in my travel business. It’s a competitive environment out there in the world of online travel and I need these travellers to find and purchase my travel product or service rather than my competitors

I started looking at the definition of marketing in Wikipedia.

1 Discern consumer desires

2 Design product or service to fulfil these desires

3 Direct consumers to purchasing your product or service.

It’s all very well reading three apparently simple marketing steps but the trick is how you translate these into actions that will be effective for your travel business.

I believe that there is a niche for Europe a la Carte in providing information to travellers who want to experience authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget. I see the rise in the value of the euro against the dollar and sterling as an opportunity for me to attract travellers who want to squeeze more of off their holiday euro but still travel in relative comfort. Also more UK residents are considering taking holidays on home shores and my site has a lot of content about Scotland.

Therefore in order to follow step 2 of fulfilling the desire of travellers to visit authentic Europe on a modest budget I write destination guides to less well known cities and regions where travellers can experience more of the real Europe away from the tourist crowds and inflated prices.

The blog plays a crucial part in part 2 by offering readers posts giving tips and advice about destinations, travel deals, accommodation and links to useful resources.

With regard to step 3, that should follow logically on from the content of the site and blog if my content can be found through the search terms used by potential site visitors. Around 50% my site traffic comes in through the blog, making it a crucial part of my marketing strategy.

With more than half of my site traffic coming from search engines keyword identification and search engine optimisation are crucial. However I find that visitors referred to my site stay longer and look at more pages highlighted the importance of having links on other sites and blogs.

However merely driving traffic to the site is not my aim, I need a percentage of visitors to go on to purchase accommodation, car hire or insurance through the affiliate links and/or click on ads on the site in order to generate revenue. I find that it’s contextual text links that bring the most revenue. You can’t just stick a few banners on your site and expect that to be effective.

You can see that my blog is an excellent fit in my marketing strategy as it is an integral part of satisfying my visitors desire for information to assist them in planning authentic travel in Europe on a modest budget through the content of the blog posts. The blog contains some Google Ads and affiliate links which generate revenue. The blog also has links into the destination guides and search and book facilities in the main site with the likelihood of further revenue generation there.

You really have to ensure that your blog is a good fit with your marketing strategy to maximise the potential of your blog to justify the time and effort you have to spend to research and write quality, unique content for the blog.

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I love the HotelsCombined affiliate scheme because it makes money for me and it’s a great resource for my site visitors enabling them to quickly and easily find a great deal on hotels through a price comparison facility.

Finding the best affiliate schemes for your site is crucial. You want to maximise revenue by using contextual links which have a high utility value to your site visitors leading to a high click through rate.

I rate the HotelsCombined affiliate scheme as excellent because:

1 I can personally endorse the site through frequent personal use.

2 It’s a useful resource to my site visitors who are going to shop around for the best deal, so why not on my site.

3 A vast array of easy to use affiliate tools.

4 You can choose which commission structure suits you.

5 One year cookie so you can earn commission for longer.

6 Good back up support.

I first used HotelsCombined as a consumer to search for the best accommodation deals for my own business and leisure stays. The site searched over 30 accommodation suppliers such as Bookings.com, Octopus, Laterooms and Venere, There’s usually a wide choice of accommodation with some real bargains, so it’s a great resource for travellers. Whenever I’m thinking about a trip, HotelsCombined is my first port of call in my quest to find the best hotel rate.

I noticed HotelsCombined had an affiliate scheme so I decided to sign up. It’s a great asset to have a hotel price comparison site on my travel site as I know that visitors are going to shop around for the best deal, so if I provide that facility on my site, visitors are more likely to stay on my site and perceive my site as a useful resource.

The affiliate tools are extensive, you can make country, city or hotel specific search boxes to add to your site or construct links to any page on the HotelsCombined site. It’s really useful as an affiliate to have such a variety of links to use contextually on your site which I believe lead to a much higher click through and purchase rate than flashing banners.

You can earn commission in two different ways. You can elect to receive a 70% of the average click through fee paid to HotelsCombined by suppliers in their database. which averages 42 cents per click. The other option is to receive commission through your direct relationship with the suppliers in which case you don’t receive any click through fee. This option isn’t yet available for all suppliers. You have to judge which commission model is most profitable for you. It’s easy to change the commission settings you just have to type in your affiliate tracking number, so you can experiment.

The other great thing about HotelsCombined is that their cookie last for one year, which could generate a fair income from frequent travellers.

I’ve contacted HotelsCombined a couple of times with queries and have received helpful replies within hours. It’s really good to have the back up of good customer service.

My only criticism is I’d like there to be the possibility of a direct relationship with all the accommodation suppliers. I’ve requested an affiliate search box which fits in the margin and was told they will look into developing one soon.

So if you’re looking for a great affiliate scheme for a travel related site I’d recommend HotelsCombined.

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Jens of the Tourism Internet Marketing blog has put out a call for travel marketing secrets and tips. He’s looking for your best kept marketing secret to add to Tips from the T List ebook. This set me thinking about my marketing efforts in my travel business.  So here’s my tip.

Create and maintain a blog for your business by writing content which will inform, interest and/or entertain readers while building brand awareness and loyalty and increasing sales for your business.  Readers need to perceive benefits from your blog, they’re not going to spend time on blatant sales blurb. You need a financial return on the time spent writing and publicising your blog. Aim to achieve the balance of satisfying readers desires and wants and reaching and capturing customers for your product or service to realise the full potential of your business blog.

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I think that a blog may not be appropriate for all business. However this question does require careful consideration, as the benefits of a blog many not be immediately apparent.

For example at present a hairdressing business may servicing a local market. You may think it hardly needs a website never mind a blog. A website could be useful to give opening times, a profile of staff members, photos of latest hairstyles. If a person moves into that area, they may do an internet search to find out about local hairdressers. Reading that salon’s website could be a positive influence in deciding to use that particular business.

A blog could give that hairdresser even more of a competitive advantage. There could be blog posts about celebrity hairstyles, testing of haircare and styling products, hopefully with comments. If that blog carried adverts for haircare and hairstyling products the revenue from these adverts could boost the business income.

[tags]business blogs[/tags]

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The simple answer is that a blog can boost your business. Many small business owners simply haven’t considered a blog or just dismissed the idea without careful consideration . They don’t think it is relevant to their business, they think it’s a passing fad or perhaps they don’t know how to get started.

I started a blog for my online travel business in October 2006. Within 6 months my site visitors and sales had doubled. However it’s not quick fix, I spent a lot of time researching and writing posts and promoting the blog.

In this blog I’ll be share my experience with you to help you boost your business.

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